J.C. “Jake” Elder, a former crew chief in the Cup Series, died Wednesday in Statesville, North Carolina at the age of 73. He was known as “Suitcase Jake” because he could never settle down with one organization for very long.
He is generally considered by the NASCAR community as one of the greatest crew chiefs of all-time. He won two championships with David Pearson and helped mold some of NASCAR’s legends including Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip and Benny Parsons.
If you want to take a look back at the grassroots of NASCAR, Jake Elder is a great place to begin.
He was born on November 22, 1936 and his education ended around the 3rd grade. Elder never learned to read and write but his knowledge of cars was almost unrivaled.
He began his NASCAR career in 1960 as a fabricator for Petty Enterprises.
Jake came to work for us in Level Cross in the ‘60s, down from the Hickory area, and he was a fabricator,” Richard Petty said. “Jake was old school. There was no engineering; it was all off the cuff. He’d put something on the car and say, ‘OK, now it’s right. Here, you go drive it. And don’t come back in complaining to me, because I got the car fixed. You go learn how to drive it.’” Continue reading →
